ACLU: 'Difficult' to get records from New Bedford Police Department

NEW BEDFORD — Lawyers requesting further investigation into the death of a 15-year-old at the hands of police said Monday it has been “difficult” to get information — both general and specific to the incident — from the city's Police Department.

NEW BEDFORD — Lawyers requesting further investigation into the death of a 15-year-old at the hands of police said Monday it has been “difficult” to get information — both general and specific to the incident — from the city's Police Department.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts requested records of the department's policies involving stops by police and the use of force, including firearms training, ACLU lawyer John Reinstein said. Those requests were made in October, he said.

The ACLU also asked the department for a copy of its internal investigation of the May 17 police encounter with Malcolm Gracia, who was shot and killed after he stabbed a police detective. The results of that investigation were not provided to District Attorney Sam Sutter during his review of the incident, which was released in July.

Police Chief David Provencher said the department had waited until the district attorney released his report to conclude its own review, which remains incomplete.

Provencher said the other request had been forwarded to the city solicitor's office. “I have a meeting scheduled with (City Solicitor) John Markey to straighten it all out,” he said. Markey could not be immediately reached for comment.

On Monday the ACLU, NAACP's New England Area Conference, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and the New Bedford branch of the NAACP asked Attorney General Martha Coakley to call for a judicial investigation of the death and asked her civil rights division to review the Police Department's “meet and greet” practices.

By law, public entities have 10 days to respond to public records requests, a requirement that is “honored in the breach,” Reinstein said.

The judge performing the review would have subpoena power to obtain the documents, Reinstein said, adding that he intended to continue to pursue information, such as records from the city's acoustic gunshot detection system that would detail information about the shots fired at Gracia by police.

“This is not the first request about police practices that has been made to the New Bedford Police Department,” Reinstein said. “It's difficult prying records out of the department but we're going to attempt to do that.”

Provencher said he is “not completely happy ... but not overly concerned” with the pace of the internal investigation. He rejected the idea that the Police Department is uncooperative with records requests.

“We get records requests every day and I am perfectly happy to provide whatever documents the law entitles people to,” he said, adding, “If I believe that public records exemptions apply and folks are not entitled to those documents then I would take that stance.”